drewb.orgDrew Breunig's personal sitehttp://drewb.org/
Wed, 01 Nov 2017 14:59:45 -0700Wed, 01 Nov 2017 14:59:45 -0700Jekyll v3.1.6Spectacles are the Anti-GlassSun, 25 Sep 2016 07:00:00 -0700http://drewb.org/2016/snapchat-is-the-anti-glass/
http://drewb.org/2016/snapchat-is-the-anti-glass/snapchatsnapspectaclesproductdesignmediumlinktechDo Algorithms Find Depression or Cause Depression?Wed, 24 Aug 2016 07:00:00 -0700http://drewb.org/2016/do-algorithms-cause-depression/
http://drewb.org/2016/do-algorithms-cause-depression/machinelearningdeeplearningmldlaimechanicalturkcrowdmediumlinktechA Community Camera Manifesto<h4 id="communities-should-take-ownership-of-their-video-documentation-what-should-such-a-system-look-like">Communities should take ownership of their video documentation. What should such a system look like?</h4>
<p><img src="/assets/images/ccd_holms.jpg" alt="A CCD camera." /></p>
<p>It is significant that we learn about police violence only from cellphones, not from police body or dash cameras.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/06/us/alton-sterling-baton-rouge-shooting.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;clickSource=story-heading&amp;module=first-column-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news&amp;_r=0">Body cameras fall off</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/national-international/Judge-to-Decide-on-Release-of-Laquan-McDonald-Video-351741261.html">Dash camera footage can simply be refused</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2016/06/20/indiana-city-suspend-police-body-cameras/86146072/">Video storage cannot be afforded.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.popsci.com/wheres-baton-rouge-police-body-camera-footage#page-2">Footage shot is often exempt from public records laws</a>.</p>
<p>Thankfully, citizen-owned cameras are increasingly present. Sadly, this footage is often deleted or stolen.</p>
<hr />
<p>We should take responsibility for the creation of an accountable, fair, and accessible video network, which is beyond the reach of individual influence. To build such a network, a distributed system is our only hope.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://medium.com/@dbreunig/a-community-camera-manifesto-79afd29e54d6#.mtw0j5uf4">Continue reading on Medium</a></em></p>
Thu, 04 Aug 2016 07:00:00 -0700http://drewb.org/2016/community-camera-manifest/
http://drewb.org/2016/community-camera-manifest/securitycamerasvideomediumlinktechThe Business Implications of Machine Learning<h3 id="its-not-about-what-it-can-do-but-the-effects-of-its-prioritization">It’s not about what it can do, but the effects of its prioritization</h3>
<p>As buzzwords become ubiquitous they become easier to tune out.</p>
<p>We’ve finely honed this defense mechanism, for good purpose. It’s better to focus on what’s in front of us than the flavor of the week. <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/health-36439260">CRISPR might change our lives</a>, but knowing how it works doesn’t help you. VR could eat all media, but it’s <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2016/05/31/amds-radeon-rx480-gpu-is-vr-ready-for-just-199/">hardware requirements keep it many years away</a> from common use.</p>
<p>But please: <strong>do not ignore machine learning</strong>.</p>
<p>Yes, machine learning will help us build wonderful applications. But that isn’t why I think you should pay attention to it.</p>
<p>You should pay attention to machine learning because it has been prioritized by the companies which drive the technology industry, namely Google, Facebook, and Amazon. The nature of machine learning — how it works, what makes it good, and how it’s delivered — ensures that this strategic prioritization will significantly change the tech industry before even a fraction of machine learning’s value is unleashed.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://medium.com/@dbreunig/the-business-implications-of-machine-learning-11480b99184d#.j4kin9est">Continue reading on Medium</a></em></p>
Fri, 22 Jul 2016 07:00:00 -0700http://drewb.org/2016/the-business-implications-of-machine-learning/
http://drewb.org/2016/the-business-implications-of-machine-learning/machinelearningmediumlinktechMotivations Behind Calls for Podcast Data<h3 id="to-sustain-niches-other-than-technology-podcast-companies-need-data">To sustain niches other than technology, podcast companies need data</h3>
<p>Last Sunday, The New York Times published <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/business/media/podcasts-surge-apple.html?_r=3">an article</a> by John Herrman detailing the dance between Apple and podcast companies regarding access to data and promotion. The podcast networks want more audience data from Apple, the ability to more easily charge for podcasts, and a more access to promotion on the front page of the iTunes Store.</p>
<p>Shortly after, Marco Arment, maker of the excellent podcast app Overcast and a podcaster himself, <a href="https://marco.org/2016/05/07/apple-role-in-podcasting">fired back</a>. He criticized Herrman’s reporting but took a larger issue with the podcaster Companies seeking data from Apple. In his podcast, Arment goes into more detail about his issues with data collection, specifically that it would make podcasting more like the web: optimized and monetized within an inch of its life and stripped of its uniqueness.</p>
<p>I don’t want to discuss which view is correct, but I do want to add some context that certainly colors the debate.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://medium.com/@dbreunig/a-reason-podcasters-want-data-1588d79aac7d#.t85mrlqjb">Continue reading on Medium</a></em></p>
Sat, 14 May 2016 07:00:00 -0700http://drewb.org/2016/motivations-behind-calls-for-podcast-data/
http://drewb.org/2016/motivations-behind-calls-for-podcast-data/podcastsadvertisingmediumlinktechDiscussions We Will Have in 2016<h3 id="we-wont-build-places-for-people-we-will-process-people">We won’t build places for people. We will process people.</h3>
<p><img src="/assets/images/deep_face_stalone.png" alt="DeepFace Stallone." /></p>
<p>The future is complex. It arrives quickly like strong wave or slowly like a gradual tide, dependent on existing contexts. The pace of successful, new applications and businesses is dependent not only on established infrastructures, install bases, and technological capabilities, but cultural settings as well.</p>
<p>While considering what 2016 might have in store for us technologically, I am struck by the number of cultural live-wires awaiting us. There is always a gap between what we can do, what we understand, and what we’re comfortable with, but today gap seems wider than usual.
Over the last decade, people have acclimitized to the mobile/social norm. But this mass adoption — a Great Digital Onboarding—has staged the population into a network ready for computation and analysis. <a href="http://avc.com/2015/12/what-happened-in-2015/">As this network has matured into a stable, more stagnant ecosystem dominated by Google, Facebook and Apple</a>, we will begin to see new companies not building applications for people to join, but applications for analyzing the people already present. This is a shocking shift. The apparatus of technology will not be presented as a space for people, but as a mechanism pointed directly at them.</p>
<p>This change is why I believe the gap between capability and comprehension will snap back. As successful applications for processing our digital selves emerge, conversations will be kicked off in an attempt to negotiate a comfortable future.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://medium.com/@dbreunig/discussions-we-will-have-in-2016-abc1e1d1c4e6#.nxao4htns">Continue reading on Medium</a></em></p>
Fri, 01 Jan 2016 06:00:00 -0800http://drewb.org/2016/discussions-we-will-have-in-2016/
http://drewb.org/2016/discussions-we-will-have-in-2016/machinelearningsocialpeoplephotoscamerasmediumlinktechFake Can Be Just as Good<p>###In this era of ubiquitous information can anything be Authentic for more than a moment?</p>
<p><img src="/assets/images/coors_messenger.png" alt="Bike messenger advertising." /></p>
<p>When I first started working in advertising, not long after the dot-com crash, the industry was weirdly infatuated with bike messengers. Copywriters and designer stared wistfully from their desks whenever a courier arrived, lustily noting their Chrome messenger bags and fixed-gear bikes. It was not uncommon to find an ex-coworker delivering your contracts.</p>
<p>This romance bled into our work. Making advertisements with bike messengers was perhaps the most common way to imbue corporations with Authenticity. From <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/22/magazine/the-marketing-of-no-marketing.html">Pabst</a> to <a href="http://www.adrants.com/2005/06/coors-lite-joins-lincoln-using-bike.php">Coors</a>, <a href="http://www.adrants.com/2005/05/lincoln-goes-for-bike-messenger-street.php">Lincoln</a> to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OatRG9aZcxc&amp;feature=player_embedded">Mercedes</a>, messengers were everywhere.</p>
<p>The bike messenger was the perfect myth for America in the 2000s. The cowboy reborn for the post-bubble era. There was no greater symbol of authenticity.</p>
<p>But our fascination faded. Ubiquity lessened the messenger’s totemic value (if Coors is using bike messengers, why bother?), but we also discovered the truth behind messengers: they were generally miserable. They lacked health care, barely made money, and were injured at a fantastic rate. Some advertisers tried to mitigate this negativity (I remember a couple who looked into providing health care) but in general, the thrill was gone. Today, our romance with messengers survives as a vestigial interest in fixies.</p>
<p>It’s interesting how long we loved bike messengers. Today, their injuries and exploitation would be the subjects of many an article. Uber drivers and other on-demand service workers we never the subject of our longing. As soon as we met them we were presented countless examples of their troubles.</p>
<p>In this era of ubiquitous information can anything be Authentic for more than a moment?</p>
<p><em><a href="https://medium.com/@dbreunig/fake-can-be-just-as-good-897bfbc27918#.yskar5y4d">Continue reading on Medium</a></em></p>
Sat, 19 Dec 2015 06:00:00 -0800http://drewb.org/2015/fake-can-be-just-as-good/
http://drewb.org/2015/fake-can-be-just-as-good/advertisingauthenticitymediumlinkfakeWays of Thinking About Products: Starter Kits<p>###We outgrow new platforms one piece at a time.</p>
<p><img src="/assets/images/knife_block.jpg" alt="One starter kit." /></p>
<p>Metaphors matter. We reduce complex ideas into little, packaged parables for ease of communication. But this gift isn’t free. Metaphors ignore details and carry unintended meanings. Be thoughtful with them and update them as needed. They’re increasingly dangerous as they stagnate.</p>
<p>The idea of a ‘walled garden’ glosses over users’ gradual behaviors and encourages binary thinking.</p>
<p>Start thinking of knife blocks instead.</p>
<p>During the first internet era, the web was sold to users in self contained packages. Prodigy, AOL, and others were delivered as kits containing everything a new browser would foreseeably need: email, stocks, news, weather, and chats. The web was new and confusing, so these kits were appealing. They smoothed the learning curve by obscuring it entirely.</p>
<p>As we grew accustomed to the internet, we outgrew AOL and Prodigy. We ventured to Hotmail or Gmail because they had more features and storage. We learned how to search with text because Google granted access to more of the web than point-and-click category buttons. We choose new screennames on Skype because it let us talk to people, not simply text.</p>
<p>As we became acclimatized internet users, we picked the services which best fit our needs. The internet starter kits we began with became obsolete.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://medium.com/@dbreunig/ways-of-thinking-about-products-starter-kits-bae3b4dd730f#.37smrhdbj">Continue reading on Medium</a></em></p>
Sat, 10 Oct 2015 07:00:00 -0700http://drewb.org/2015/ways-of-thinking-about-products-starter-kits/
http://drewb.org/2015/ways-of-thinking-about-products-starter-kits/advertisingauthenticitymediumlinkfake